


Split Your Bones

by meanderingmirth



Series: Five Days of Dark Concepts [1]
Category: VIXX
Genre: M/M, slight age gap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:10:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5156519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingmirth/pseuds/meanderingmirth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taekwoon is Sanghyuk’s pseudo-boyfriend; they hang out and make out, but most importantly, Taekwoon’s the one who beats up the stepbrothers that torment Sanghyuk. In between bloody noses and misleadingly innocent boyish looks, Sanghyuk laughs on the sidelines and Taekwoon finds that he doesn’t really mind staining his hands if it’ll mean Sanghyuk keeps on smiling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Split Your Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the first story for the Dark Concept theme!
> 
> enjoy!

The brutal crack of knuckles on jawbone seemed to echo around the empty performance hall as Taekwoon’s fist connected with the side of the boy’s face. The force of his punch sent him sprawling onto the ground with a heavy thud that reverberated in the upright piano next to them, making the strings thrum with a hollow, pitiful noise.

Sanghyuk’s derisive little laugh, on the other hand, was music to Taekwoon’s ears.

He shot Sanghyuk a look as he wiped the bit of spittle splattered on his fist down the side of his jeans. The younger was sitting off to the side, cross-legged on top of the piano chair, watching Taekwoon beat the shit out of his stepbrother with mild interest and his chin propped up on his fist like he was watching an amusing show. The swollen, puffy bruise that had been purpling around his left eye, courtesy of Sanghyuk’s stepbrother, had finally begun to recede a little.

Meanwhile, if the stinging in Taekwoon’s fist was anything to go by, the brother he’d just hit would be sporting one of his own pretty soon. He didn’t bother remembering names; Sanghyuk had too many half-siblings to keep track of.

“You’re fucking nuts,” the brother spat, scrambling away from Taekwoon. He looked angry, but he also didn’t look like he was going to fight back anymore, so Taekwoon supposed he could count that as a win.

“You’ll pay for that,” the boy was saying to Sanghyuk, who shrugged indifferently and unfurled his legs from the chair.

“I’ll just send Taekwoon after you again,” he smiled, stooping to pick up his backpack. The brother cussed angrily under his breath, but he was smarter than the last two Taekwoon had shredded into, and knew when to call it quits. There was a flurry of footsteps, the opening of the side door, and the rattling sound of metal on metal as it closed. Taekwoon let out a soft sigh and smoothed his leather jacket back down from where it’d bunched around his shoulders during the scuffle.

“You gave it to him good,” Sanghyuk chortled as he walked over, a boyish grin gracing his face. Taekwoon raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t comment as he lifted a hand and brushed it gently over the bruise under Sanghyuk’s eye. He could’ve ruined Sanghyuk’s stepbrother, and they both knew it.

“Aren’t you putting any of the defensive maneuvers I’ve been teaching you to use?”

“ ‘Course I am,” Sanghyuk pouted. “But I’m just not as good as you.”

“Maybe you should come by the gym more often and start training,” Taekwoon snorted. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and made for the exit, leaving Sanghyuk to catch up after him. “If you practiced you’d get better.”

“I have school,” Sanghyuk whined, falling into step with him as they left the performance hall. “Dad’ll kill me if my grades drop.”

“Thought you were the child prodigy in your family,” Taekwoon said, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards. It was precisely because Sanghyuk was his father’s favoured, genius child that he got into so much crap with his siblings. Jealousy, dissatisfaction, envy— all those combined factors usually ended up leaving Sanghyuk’s face a bloody mess for Taekwoon to fix. That, and because of his father’s constant absence for business meant a lack of authority in the house and because his step-siblings just can’t seem to find a way to keep their hands to themselves.

“Just because I’m a genius doesn’t mean I don’t have things to learn,” Sanghyuk huffed. He was digging around the pocket of his sweater, searching for something, and when he finally withdrew his hand he held a bright red lollipop with a lopsided wrapper on it. Ripping the plastic off with flourish, Sanghyuk shoved the treat into his mouth and sucked happily on it, hands laced behind his head before he glanced at Taekwoon, who was staring.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, smirking. “Did you want a lick?”

“Aren’t you too old for sweets?” Taekwoon shot back instead, pulling his car keys out of his back pocket as they neared his car. “Brush your teeth before you take a nap, kiddo, or you’ll get cavities.”

The smile dropped off Sanghyuk’s face and he rolled his eyes. “You are such an asshole sometimes,” he bit out, but allowed Taekwoon to place a hand on the small of his back and steer him towards the passenger side anyway. Taekwoon’s car was an older model, some sports brand that went out of production a while ago, and it certainly wasn’t as comfortable as some of the sleek four-wheelers the drivers employed by Sanghyuk’s father drives him around in. Yet Sanghyuk never seemed bothered by it, and always found a way to make himself comfortable in Taekwoon car’s, reclining happily in the scratched leather seat as he chucked his bag into the mess of newspapers, empty coffee cups and boxing equipment in the backseat.

“When are you free this month?” Taekwoon asked as he reversed out of the spot, hand braced on Sanghyuk’s seat as he scanned the lot for wandering students and other cars.

“Probably in a few weeks, after my midterms,” Sanghyuk said, words slightly muffled around the lollipop as he dug through the crumpled power bar wrappers and spare change in the cup holder for the auxiliary cord.

“Remind me what those are again?” Taekwoon murmured, only half-listening as he pulled out onto the main road and immediately stepped on the gas. Everything slid backwards on the smooth leather as they accelerated way past the speed limit and cut across three lanes until they hit the far left. Someone honked at them, and Taekwoon gave them the finger as they sped past.

“I told you last time,” Sanghyuk huffed as he plugged his phone into the car. “Business management, economics, stats, and data math.”

“So, all the boring shit.”

“Basically.”

“Dunno why you still put up with it,” Taekwoon said, slanting a look at the younger as he selected some top forty pop song in his playlist and turned the volume up. He couldn’t resist reaching out to give the underside of Sanghyuk’s chin a little stroke; Sanghyuk flinched away with a ticklish squirm and glared at Taekwoon when he snorted.

“If I had it my way I’d do co-op in college first,” Sanghyuk said, slouching in the seat, swirling the lollipop’s stick in his mouth. “But I’m not the one paying for university, so I gotta to do what dad wants.”

“Rough,” Taekwoon commented. He never had much to say on that topic, and Sanghyuk knew that. Taekwoon had studied briefly at the community college in his area, but becoming a trainer at the boxing gym he’d frequented since he was a teenager was a much more logical path. Stocks? Marketing? Business? That was a whole other language for him, and not one Taekwoon was interested in learning.

But sometimes, when Sanghyuk’s sitting in the back of the gym, curled up around a textbook thicker than ta brick with a little furrow between his brows and a pen between his teeth, Taekwoon would sit down in front of him between breaks and just watch Sanghyuk study. Sometimes Sanghyuk would grin at him and read out some random fact from his books, and other times he’d be icing a purple and yellow bruise on his face while he scribbled silently in his notebook. Those times were the times Taekwoon would make him stay at the gym, wouldn’t let him go home where Sanghyuk’s stepbrothers could have at him, and then bring the younger back to his flat to stay the night before dropping him off at school the next morning.

And somewhere in between, they’ll always find the time for Taekwoon to pin Sanghyuk against the wall, dragging his teeth down Sanghyuk’s neck, or else Sanghyuk would straddle him on the couch while Taekwoon’s watching something on TV that night, grinding his hips down with a shit-eating grin on his face until Taekwoon loses his patience and throws him down onto the cushions instead.

They swung by a fast food place on their way to the gym to pick up something to eat; Sanghyuk yelled for a large coffee and two hamburger combos into the intercom across the console because Taekwoon’s soft voice was never heard by the employees.

“Let’s go somewhere after you’re done your tests,” Taekwoon suggested offhandedly as they pulled up into the parking lot behind the plaza. Sanghyuk looked up at him in surprise, but it quickly gave way to a pleased expression.

“You got some place in mind?” he asked, unbuckling his seatbelt as Taekwoon slid the car into an empty spot.

“Not really,” Taekwoon shrugged, killing the engine. “But I would like to go somewhere with you. You can pick if you want. Just don’t expect some fancy vacation to an island or some shit, you can ask your dad for that if that’s what you’re interested in.”

“As if,” Sanghyuk snorted. He yanked the stick he’d been chewing on out of his mouth with a grin. The candy had melted away long ago, and the unnaturally bright red stain left behind on Sanghyuk’s tongue and lips blurred out of focus as he leaned over and kissed Taekwoon, tongue sliding against the elder’s as Taekwoon automatically looped his arm around Sanghyuk’s shoulders and pulled him in.

The kiss was messy and slick, and it tasted of sickeningly fake over-sweet cherries.

“I suggest we book a hotel room for a week and never leave it,” Sanghyuk said mischievously between kisses, and Taekwoon snorted softly.

“You young ones are so uncreative,” he said, nipping at Sanghyuk’s lower lip before he pulled back. “Think about it properly and then let me know.”

“And you old ones are so unadventurous!” Sanghyuk hollered as Taekwoon climbed out of the car. Taekwoon laughed and pushed his seat down, grabbing his gym bag from the back and tossing Sanghyuks backpack towards him.

“Get your ass into the gym,” Taekwoon said, watching Sanghyuk collect his things and their take out with a childishly disgruntled expression. He looked cute, but Taekwoon wouldn’t say that out loud. “We’ll work on defensive positions again today.”

+

“No boyfriend tonight?” Hakyeon called from the couch as Taekwoon finished piling the fried rice onto the plate next to the beef patties. He tossed the spatula into the sink and slid his hands under the ceramics, balancing the meals on each hand as he walked into the living room.

“Kid’s got his own home too,” he said, passing Hakyeon his dinner. “He doesn’t live here.” Even though I’d rather he did, he doesn’t say aloud.

“You two are together so often I often forget that,” Hakyeon snickered, taking a long gulp of beer. “Every time I see you at the gym, you’re boxing with him or he’s sitting off to the side with all his books. You pick him up from school and invite him over for sleepovers. Do you guys keep a diary together too?”

“Eat your fucking food,” Taekwoon grumbled, shoving Hakyeon onto his side. His friend laughed, but obligingly dug into his dinner as the soccer game played out on the television. It was only one of the quarterfinal games, but he’d agreed to Hakyeon coming over anyway because firstly, Sanghyuk was nose-deep in studying and thus too busy for anything else, and secondly, Hakyeon was right— Taekwoon was spending more and more time with Sanghyuk with each passing day. He wondered when the two of them became so familiar, how the banged-up kid with the pathetic sob story that ducked into the gym just before closing on a rainy night managed to worm his way into Taekwoon’s life so easily, and how he managed to simply stay there from that point onwards.

He kicked his feet up and balanced the plate on his lap, rubbing the sore, bruised knuckles on his right hand as they watched the game unfold. The gaps in his daily schedule left behind by Sanghyuk’s absence meant longer and more intensive workout sessions in the gym, and it was the only other thing Taekwoon could think of doing aside from helping out at Wonshik’s tattoo parlour. He didn’t particularly like the place. It was too full of pain junkies swaggering in or young teenagers, still wet around the ears, looking to ink some clichéd line that they’re sure to regret in a few years’ time onto their wrists.

“Oi,” Hakyeon said, jolting Taekwoon out of his stupor with his elbow. “Your phone’s ringing.”

“Fuck,” he groused, pushing himself up right and setting his dinner down on the coffee table as he grabbed his cell phone. The name flashing across the screen was  _Sanghyuk_ , and Taekwoon motioned for Hakyeon to turn the volume of the game down as he answered the call.

“Yeah?”

“Taekwoon?”

Sanghyuk’s voice was nasally on the other end, and it sounded hushed, as though he was trying to stay quiet. Taekwoon frowned and sat up.

“It’s me. What’s the matter?”

“Can you come and get me?” Sanghyuk whispered, his erratic breathing causing little bursts of static to go off. “I’m— my brothers— I can’t—”

“I’m on my way,” Taekwoon said shortly, standing. Hakyeon was watching him, his sharp eyes following Taekwoon as he walked out of the living room to grab his car keys from the kitchen counter and his jacket from were it’s draped on one of the stools. “I’ll be at your place in ten.” It took twenty minutes at the very least to drive from Taekwoon’s flat to Sanghyuk’s house, but that didn’t matter.

“Okay,” Sanghyuk muttered. “Uh, I packed some things. Could I... could I stay a few days? At your place?”

“Bring everything you need,” Taekwoon growled. “You’re not leaving for a while.”

“Alright,” Sanghyuk breathed. “Thanks.”

“Call me again if anything else happens,” Taekwoon said, and he waited until Sanghyuk gave an affirmative and hung up. Hakyeon was waiting for him in the foyer when he went to pull his shoes on.

“Guess I was wrong about the no-boyfriend thing tonight,” his friend said sardonically, but there was a flash of concern in his eyes as Taekwoon pulled his jacket over his shoulders. “Is Sanghyuk okay?”

“He will be,” Taekwoon said through gritted teeth. “Could you leave the first aid kit out in the bathroom before you go?”

“Sure,” Hakyeon nodded. “Watch where you drive.”

Taekwoon was already halfway out the door, giving a half-wave as he shut the door quickly. He felt a muscle jump in his jaw as he descended down the lift into the parking garage, located his car and drove out briskly, nearly clipping his side mirror against one of the columns as he backed out.

Sanghyuk’s house was nothing like Taekwoon’s; his family lived in the upper-class suburbs where the houses were ridiculous shades of coral pink or a nauseating peachy colour. Three or four-door garages took up an entire section of the house and there were mini roundabouts paved with lumpy cobblestones instead of cracked driveways. The lawns were green and primly cut, and spotlights shone from the corners of the rooftops, unnecessarily illuminating the vast expanse of property.

Sanghyuk’s house was familiar to Taekwoon only because of how often he’d picked him up and dropped him off. He’d never had any desire to go inside, but tonight he’d storm the door down and march upstairs to find Sanghyuk if he had to. He pulled up onto the long driveway, one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his phone, texting a short  _here_  to Sanghyuk. He forced the car to a halt, shifted the gear into park and climbed out, leaving the vehicle running as he faced the door and waited.

It took a few moments, but then the front door burst open and light spilled onto the darkened lawn. Distant shouting followed Sanghyuk as he stormed out, his backpack hanging from his shoulders and a large duffle bag banging against the side of his leg as he walked down the front steps. Taekwoon felt his feet move automatically, and when he closed the distance between them he could feel his blood boiling inside his veins.

Sanghyuk had blood on his face, most of it smeared from from his sluggishly bleeding nose, where a sizeable lump had raised on the bridge. He was breathing heavily, and even though Taekwoon could see the wariness in his body, there was anger in Sanghyuk’s bruised eyes, and he was somewhat glad to know that the younger had been fighting back to defend himself.

He reached out and cradled Sanghyuk’s jaw in his palm, even as the shouting grew louder and a man— one of Sanghyuk’s eldest brothers— walked out of the house and started down the pathway towards them, yelling.

“Are you okay?” Taekwoon asked quietly, and Sanghyuk nodded.

“Stings a little,” he said shakily, and Taekwoon smoothed his thumb over Sanghyuk’s cheek before ducking down to press a quick kiss to Sanghyuk’s temple.

“Go to the car,” he said calmly, and Sanghyuk’s eyes gleamed a little before he obliged, making his way across the driveway to where Taekwoon’s car was parked.

His attention shifted to the other man walking towards him. He looked older— was he Taekwoon’s age? In the end, it didn’t matter to him, because Taekwoon was already winding back and swinging forwards before the other could react. The crunch was resounding in the night air, and the following hits that followed grew steadily wetter and wetter as the two of them grappled, feet scraping across the even interlock as fingers wrapped around the fronts of shirts and nails dug into palms with every hit.

The brother was a good fighter, but Taekwoon was better.

He could feel his knuckles, already bashed-up from practice, sting in protest as he hit faster and harder, adrenaline singing in his veins until he heard someone else yelling at him from inside the house; a female’s voice.

“Hey!  _Hey_! Are you quite finished?”

He stopped and looked up, squinting at the figure of one of Sanghyuk’s sisters. Her eyes were narrowed in a rather familiar way, and it struck Taekwoon then that this might be Sanghyuk’s biological sister, the only other sibling with whom he shared a mother. He heaved a breath and forced his fingers to release its death hold on the brother’s collar. The man slumped to the ground, still conscious but undoubtably more beat up than both Taekwoon and Sanghyuk combined. Through the doorway he could see some younger half-siblings hovering in the wide hallway, sneaking peeks behind Sanghyuk’s sister’s back.

He felt rather abashed then. Taekwoon hadn’t meant to start a fight in front of children.

“I think you’ve done enough damage here,” she said to him, though she made no move to help the stepbrother, and he rather thought the underlying steel in her voice seemed to imply the opposite. “Go now, before someone calls the cops.”

Taekwoon turned on his heel, spitting out a wad of copper from his mouth as he walked to where Sanghyuk was standing next to his car, watching the scene unfold. When he saw Taekwoon headed his way, he silently got into the passenger seat and shut the door behind him.

The ride home was silent and still save for Sanghyuk’s stuffy breathing and the warmth of his palm around Taekwoon’s hand.

The first aid kit was sitting on the bathroom counter like Taekwoon had asked for when they made it back into the empty apartment. Shoes laid haphazardly in the foyer, bags were discarded along the hallway and Taekwoon’s jacket had been shed somewhere he didn’t care to make note of as they squeezed themselves into the bathroom. Sanghyuk had gotten taller again, something Taekwoon often didn’t notice until they were standing close to one another, arms and legs sliding into each other’s personal space. Taekwoon made Sanghyuk sit down on the toilet lid and hold still as he mopped the dried blood off his face.

“Well, it’s not broken,” Taekwoon groused as he dabbed at the swollen lump. “But it came close to. Your brother packed a good hit.”

“Bastard,” Sanghyuk muttered under his breath, and Taekwoon couldn’t hold back the grin that broke out across his face.

“Did you remember what I taught you at the gym?”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk said softly, curling his large hands into loose fists as he raised them in front of his face. “Keep ‘em up, right?”

Taekwoon set the soggy, reddened towel down the on the edge of the bathtub, and took Sanghyuk’s wrists in his hands. He pushed his arms together tighter, and then trailed his fingers down to the younger’s elbows.

“That’s right,” he said, but was surprised when Sanghyuk lowered his hands and reached to curl his fingers around Taekwoon’s right hand instead.

“You fucked your hand up,” Sanghyuk said, tracing over the split skin across Taekwoon’s knuckles, where fresh blood welled up and ran across the new bruises forming underneath.

“It was for a good cause, I suppose,” Taekwoon said, faking a casual shrug, and Sanghyuk’s eyes flared before he stood up and pushed Taekwoon against the wall, almost running them into the towel rack. His kissed Taekwoon hard, making their teeth click and their mouths bump together painfully. Taekwoon slid a hand into the sweaty strands of Sanghyuks hair and gripped, not too painfully, but enough to hold the kiss in place as they slid along the wall and out of the bathroom.

They tripped across the hall and backed into Taekwoon’s bedroom, stepping over a pile of freshly laundered workout shirts and some paperback novels Hakyeon had insisted on leaving behind before they tipped onto the bed, hands wandering freely. Taekwoon rolled them over with a grunt and pinned Sanghyuk down onto the creased sheets, breaking the kiss to catch his breath.

“You are so fucking hot when you fight,” Sanghyuk breathed, and that itself seemed to make the air vanish from Taekwoon’s lungs. “I love watching you beat the shit out of other people; you look so  _wild_.”

“I would’ve beaten your brother unconscious if your sister hadn’t stopped me,” Taekwoon said, slowly rocking his hips against Sanghyuk’s. Sanghyuk tossed his head to the side and let out a strangled moan, but when he looked back at Taekwoon his eyes were alight with fury. He looked nothing like the mischievous boy sucking on the lollipop in the passenger seat of Taekwoon’s car. Right now, Sanghyuk was the one who looked wild and intimidating, and Taekwoon could feel it. One day, Sanghyuk would be the one to snap and lay waste to his tormentors.

“I would’ve wanted to see that.”

Taekwoon laughed softly and bent down, biting softly into the spot under Sanghyuk’s jaw. How wrecked they were together, to talk of destroying others in such an intimate moment.

“What do you want me to do next time?” he asked, murmuring lowly next to Sanghyuk’s ear before working his way up to the corner of his mouth. “What will you have me do the next time they raise their hands against you again?”

Sanghyuk growled low in his chest, and his words were like razor blades across Taekwoon’s skin as he gave a simple, two word answer.

“ _Hurt them_.”

Taekwoon’s smile was unbearably wide when he kissed Sanghyuk again.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading~


End file.
